A Canadian startup is launching its social charity model Sport
For Food in the UK after being awarded £12,000 per team member by
the UK Trade and Investment's Sirius Programme.

It plans on launching the charity, which accepts participants
into flashmob sporting events in exchange for food for food banks,
with an 11-day tour of ten cities, putting on events from Belfast
to London.

"We created a tour across Canada shutting down the highest
footfall areas you can find hosting drop-in ball hockey games by
donation to local food banks," cofounder Richard Loat told
Wired.co.uk. "The result? We've raised over a quarter of a million
kilos of food in just three years. Built through social media as a
primarily digitally driven and derived social enterprise, we've
been pioneering a disruptive philanthropic model in order to create
a lifestyle philanthropy movement."

Part of what drives the charity is connecting people's online
social persona with their real one -- reaching sports fans on
different platforms via the charity's app and website. "We're
crowdsourcing engagement and consequently this results in
participation and donations from digital natives, thus changing the
way in which charity looks at connecting with the social world,"
adds Loat.

In Canada the sport of choice was hockey. In the UK, of course,
Sport for Food (originally named Five Hole for Food) is targeting
football fans everywhere. "Being a football fan is a choice. It's a
lifestyle choice," says Loat. "Finding a way to use that lifestyle
choice to make a positive impact is how we want to champion
lifestyle philanthropy using sport as a vehicle for social
change."

Loat and cofounder Jean Eyoum are hoping to use the UK as a
gateway to football fan bases across Europe, using the funding
awarded to them through Sirius.

The government scheme was launched this year and is designed to
attract the best entrepreneurs from across the globe with an
attractive package. That £12,000 per team member comes string free,
for one. Winning candidates must remain in the UK for at least 12
months, where they will join one of the country's top accelerator
programmes -- representatives from these made up part of the panels
that ran the gruelling interview and pitching rounds that whittled
the finalists down to seven winning teams (to be announced on 16
December). The government takes no equity, and startups receive
visa endorsement.

"Looking at the high calibre of entries we have received for
this programme, it is clear that Britain is fast becoming the
country of choice for talented graduates to start and grow their
businesses, which will ultimately help our economy to grow, boost
productivity and create jobs, and succeed in the global race," said
Lord Livingston, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, in a
statement.

"With the funds received, it's going to allow us to expedite the
growth process both in the UK, but of course then seeing the ripple
effect of that expedition into other countries and areas we plan to
head," said Loat.

Loat, a British expat living in Canada, got involved with Sirius
after attending a UKTI Entrepreneurs' Festival. Sirius wants to
incentivise entrepreneurs from all over the world to bring their
business to the UK, so the programme is open to all sectors and
there are a few interesting tech and biotech startups that have
also won a spot. For Sport for Food, it's the social engagement
factor that it hopes will set it apart in the UK. It seems to have
already worked in Canada, where one city declared it "Five Hole for
Food Day" when the tour came by.

"There's a very large disconnect between today's millennials and
charities. You have a demographic that wants to create social
change more than any demographic before them. They're hungrier than
ever. And yet traditional ways of giving doesn't appeal to them.
They need something hands on. You're also looking at a group that's
more socially connected, tech savvy, and digitally literate," says
Loat.

"We live in a time when this demographic of people is driven by
their identity, their social identity. So how do you create
something that appeals to them? They love sports and that is a
large part of their identity. So we set out to create something
that tied into who they want to be. They want to be sports fans
that are leaving their mark on this world and in their community.
We created something they want to associate themselves with and
that they're proud to associate themselves with."

Wired.co.uk will be speaking to the rest of the Sirius
winners next week, so watch this space.